Presidential Physicians Don’t Always Tell the Public the Full Story
They are beholden only to their patient, not to the American people.
The public may have a right to know about their president’s health, but a president’s physicians are beholden only to their patient, not to the American people. Historical examples suggest that Americans have had reason to be skeptical of what a president’s physician reported, especially when the news seemed to be suspiciously positive or selectively vague.
In the summer of 1893, Grover Cleveland was obviously not well. He had gone to Gray Gables, his summer home on Buzzards Bay in Massachusetts, in early July, ostensibly
